June 11, 2010

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State Sen. Eric Schneiderman, who's in a field of five looking to be the Democratic nominee for Andrew Cuomo's current Attorney General job, came out swinging today at rival Kathleen Rice over the Rockefeller Drug Laws - a key issue with a swath of Democratic primary voters.

Schneiderman described their "divergent" positions on the issues, and said the Nassau County DA "lobbied Senate Republicans to oppose the reforms" he has helped work for to the laws, which many advocates have called draconian.

Schneiderman challenged her to a debate on the "honest disagreement on policy," including a central reform proposal about giving judges discretion to decide on prison sentences for first-time, non-violent drug offenders convicted on felony counts. That duty used to lie totally with prosecutors.

And late in the day, he claimed success.

Rice - who is widely believed to be Cuomo's preferred successor, although he's denied he's made a choice - responded through a campaign staffer, saying she "supported the reforms and she looks forward to continuing to discuss their shared beliefs on jail diversion" for non-violent first-time drug offenders.

Her team added that she was recommending treatment over jail for drug offenders "long before the legislature passed these reforms....people see this distortion of the District Attorney's record for exactly what it is: a desperate political attack."

But Schneiderman did a round robin, saying the "look forward" portion of the letter was an agreement to the debate and his team said he would "immediately work with the other campaigns now...to arrange logistics."